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David Boag has been a professional wildlife photographer for over 40 years. He has travelled the world and he has written eighteen books for a variety of publishers and large corporate organisations. On 17^th March he gave an entertaining and humorous account of his career as a photographer, and the approach he takes to wildlife photography, to Keswick Photographic Society.

 

David first became interested in photography in the late 1960’s when the development of cameras capable of relatively fast shutter speeds enabled the capture of animal behaviour. Then in the 1970’s electronic flashes were invented which allowed him to take high speed action shots. He was regarded as a pioneer in this field and his first book, which featured Kingfishers, was published in 1982. His next book was on puffins which included underwater shots. In those days there were no water tight housings for cameras available so David had to build his own. The difficulties of wildlife photography then should not be underestimated. Shutter speeds were still relatively slow compared to those possible today with digital cameras and images could not be seen instantaneously on the back of the camera. Instead, it would take up to three weeks to a month for David to have his film processed and developed. Only then could he view his images.

 

In the 1990’s David produced a series of books on four different habitats in Britain; woodland, river, coast and garden. In these he emphasised that it was important to link images together to produce a story.  He also shared some of the tricks of his trade such as using props to attract animals in to his garden. A later project undertaken was to document the natural world of a quarry and this led to a major commission in America for the quarrying industry. This involved producing five books and took four years to complete. He visited the USA four times a year for three to six weeks each time to capture the changing seasons. With all expenses paid he said, tongue in cheek, that it was a hard life!

 

In recent years, following the introduction of digital cameras, potential income purely from the sale of images has shrunk significantly so, in addition to his books, David makes a living by giving lectures on cruise ships, leading safaris and teaching photography.  He has produced a series of tutorials which are available for purchase on his website. He is extremely modest about his own standard of photography and says that it is his enthusiasm that is the secret to his success. As a professional photographer he does not often have time to wait for perfect conditions but just has to make the most of the situation.

Throughout the evening it was David’s enthusiasm that shone through and he gave us a most enjoyable and interesting evening.

Julie Walker

The Society’s Fourth Open Competition took place via Zoom on the evening of Wednesday 10^th March. This was the last of the four Open Competitions that constitute the league for the 2020-21 season. The judge was John Fare from Workington. John is a Northern Counties Photographic Federation judge.

Thirty members entered a total of eighty-eight digital images which were all given a score out of twenty. For this competition all the images were required to have been taken in the British Isles but there was still a wide range of photographic genres submitted, including nature, creative, landscape, sport and portraiture. At the start of the judging, John commented on the excellent quality of the images which he stated was to be expected from a club that did so well in external competitions, such as those held by the Photographic Society of America. He added that all the images scoring eighteen and above he would class as excellent.

Over one-third of the images achieved scores of eighteen and above. Four images by three members achieved a top score of twenty. These were ‘Wide Eyed and Over’

 

and ‘Hermes’

both by Bob Given,

‘Summer Storms’ by Ken Rennie

 

and ‘A Pine Marten’ by Simon Roberts.

 

An impressive score of nineteen was awarded to fourteen members for their images and these were ‘A Foxy Look’ and ‘Bringing Home Dinner’ both by Simon Roberts, ‘Kingfisher, Failed Catch’, ‘Gannets, Bempton Cliffs’ and ‘Mountain Hare’ all three by Carol Minks, ‘Alium with Love in a Mist’ by David Woodthorpe, ‘Kestrels Fighting Over a Mouse’ by Alan Walker, ‘Backlit’ by Tony Marsh, ‘Water Vole Washing’ and ‘Waiting For the Bus’ both by Julie Walker, ‘The Orange Cloud’ by Carmen Norman, ‘Scale Force’ by Ken Rennie, ‘Badger at the Pool’ by Ronnie Gilbert and ‘Weather over Wythburn’ by Chris Burgess. A further fourteen images received scores of eighteen and these were ‘Anticipation’ by Julie Walker, ‘Iceworld’ by Marcus Mackay, ‘Trees in the Mist’ by Patricia Martin, ‘Night Bright’ and ‘A Good Day’s Work’ both by Sue Rugg, ‘Sunset on the Crags’ and ‘Let it Rain’ both by Keith Snell, ‘Barn Owl with Vole’ by Ronnie Gilbert, ‘The Balancing Dipper’ by Gordon Train, ‘Goldcrest’ and ‘Juvenile Pied Wagtail in the Rain’ both by Tony Marsh, ‘Sulking in the Rain’ and ‘Red Fox Hunting’ both by Alan Walker and ‘Looking Towards the Mighty Buachaille Etive Mor’ by Fred Bell,

At the end of the judging, John chose his top images from some of the different photographic genres represented and these were ‘Wide Eyed and Over’ by Bob Given (Best People), ‘Summer Storms’ by Ken Rennie (Best Landscape), ‘Mountain Hare’ by Carol Minks (Best Nature)

 

and ‘Waiting for the Bus’ by Julie Walker (Best Creative).

 

John also revealed his overall winning image of the competition and this was Bob Given’s ‘Wide Eyed and Over’, a brilliantly captured pin-sharp image of an athlete performing a back over jump as she crests the top of the bar, eyes staring ahead and hair flowing.

David Rayment thanked the judge for all the time he spent on our images and for his in-depth analysis and suggestions for improvements.

All the entered images can be viewed in our Gallery pages